Film forming element



H; i5 VAN DERHOEF Aug. 1, 1933. PM Re. 18;908

Oiiginal Filed Aug. 2L. 1925 ELECTROOEPOSITED CHROMIUM LAYER ADHEREN-rTO THE NICKEL LAYER nun HAvuue n SURFACE CORRESPONDING- gm! pom-SHEDNlcKl-IL nu POLISH TO IT. 4 5 LAYER.

TRUED AND POLISHED I COPPER L YER.

cvunomcm. IRON DRUM.

nyVmvroR,

ATTORNEY Re issued Aug. 1, 1933 r V Re,

FILM FORMING ELEMENT Henry E. Van Derhoef, Rochester, N. Y., assignor.

to'Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y., a Corporation of New YorkOriginal No. 1,746,751, dated February 11, 1930,.

Serial No. 51,640, August 21, 1925. Application for reissue February9,1932. Serial No. 591,887

8 Claims. (01. 18-15.)

This invention relates to an element having a smooth or polished that itwill not impair the chromium surface or facing upon which solutionssmoothness of the polish of the sheet material. or dopes of cellulosicesters or ethers may be Moreover, it must keep this property overproflowed or deposited for the formationv of a film, longed periods, andin spite of the fact that it is or which may be employed in themanufacture subjected to severe wearing forces by reason of its 60 ofhigh grade paper or any other purpose desired contact with the material.by those skilled in the art. One object is to pro- Drums and beltshaving nickeled surfaces (or vide a wear resisting element with a facingwhich peripheries) of hi h po i h ve b p y will be-hard and smooth and.at the same time as for instance-in the dryi g f webs of smooth 1()highly resistant to wear, even when exposed to sy p p But the tensionsset p y the 65 prolonged wearing contact with sheet materiaL, shrinkingof the pap during drying C e the Another object of the invention is toprovide an nickled surfaces to become worn too rapidly. I

I element with a smooth multilayer facing adapthave found that thesmoothness of the contacting ed to contact with sheet material andimpart its Surfaces of Suc supporting elements y be smoothness to thelatter or maintain smoothness maintained over far greater periods thanthose 70 which already exists therein, and yet maintainheretofore'obtained if the smooth nickel surface its own smoothness forprolonged periods or be covered with a layer of smoothelectrodeposadapted for any other use requiring a smooth ited chromium.The nickel should be smooth, surface and long wear. Another object ofthe and p ferably hi h y p li d. Th n the layer 20' invention is toprovide a film-making apparatus of chromium will likewise be depositedwith a 7 having a facing or surface which will be highly correspondingsmoothness, yet it will adhere to resistant to the intense and peculiardeterioratthe nickel with a high deg ee of e y- It is ing forces whichexist in the manufacture of an important feature of my invention that Ican films from cellulosic compositions. Still another impart to theelectrodeposited chromium a object is to provide a film coating surfacefrom smoothness corresponding to that of the nickel 8Q which a depositedfilm of a cellulose ester or n'diye can m k h l y rs adhere str n y inether maybe stripped with unusual facility. Anpi f he moo hne s of heivi in urfa other object of the invention, is. to provide a be we n m-Of C u ut u ace of process for preparing an elementwith such. a theChromium y e further Polished multilayer surface byelectro depositing fa smoothed if desired. chromium layer upon a smooth nickel layer, theReferrin to he drawin I hav s wn y W y chromium layer deposit having asurface corof example a fragmentary section of a cylindriresponding insmoothness-to that offthe nickel cal wheel or drum comprising a mainbody 1 and yet adhering strongly to the surface of the having its outersurface finished to a cylindrical 35- nickel, the nickel layer. in turnhaving been elecp The el at is P a d pon this. trodeposited'upon acopper layer which may be While it can be made in the form of a shelland the base of the element or which maybe a layer Shrunk di e y p themain y 1, I Prefer electrodeposited upon an iron base .of the eletoelectrodepos it, a e P a p the ba ment. Other objects willhereinafterappean. 1 a preli n y in rm i in layer f. p- 40 In theaccompanying drawing, the single figper 2. This facilitates the union;between" the ure is a fragmentary sectional View of an elementsubsequently applied nickel and the iron body 1.

having my multilayer facing thereon,'the" parts After the copp is inposition, it is Carefully being exaggerated inrelative' size for thesake trued and polished to give a smooth cylindrical of clearness. a asurface. Any of the well known methods for de- ,45 In numerousindustrial rocesses, sheet ma-, posi in pp on'ir n y be mpl y d- 10oterials are formed or treated in such a way as On the coppe layer 2 s pc preferably y to have smooth or highly polished surfaces.electrodepositioma nickel layer 3. This is done During the formation ofthe sheet materials, or by any of t e W known m s for pp y during thetreatment to perfect such surfaces it it in strong lustrous adhe e co ayfrom a v .50 is necessary for'them to contact with supports, nickelammonium sulfate bath or other equiva- 105. Usually these supports takethe form of elelent electrolyte. The'outer surface of this nickel mentshaving endless surfaces, such, as drums layeris very important inmyprocess, as the qualorbelts, which rot'a'te in approximate synchroity ofthe eventual chromium surface depends nlsm with the movement of thematerial. It is so much upon it. It is carefully smoothed meessentialthat the surface of the support be so chemically, such asby burnishing,bufllng. etc. Of

by. George J. Sargent.

course, it can be trued by grinding, if necessary, but it generallyfollows the already true cylindrical surface of the copper layer 2. Itsthickness is preferably sufilcient to make it free from holes andimperfections and yet insufficient to form the nodules which sometimeaccompany thick plating. These conditions are understood by personsskilled in the electroplating of nickel.

The chromium layer 4 is then deposited upon the smooth polished surfaceof the nickel. If the latter is free from grease, orfreed'from grease byany of the grease-removing expedients used by electroplaters, thechromium layer, when electrodeposited thereon, will adhere to it with anunexpected and very useful tenacity. The electroplating method for thedepositing of the chromium may be any of the known systems foraccomplishing this purpose. I prefer, however, the process'disclosed inthe Transactions of the American Electrochemical Society, vol. 37(1920), pages 479 to 496 Electrolytic chromium" The bright chromiumlayer 3 thus obtained presents a smooth white appearance which may besufliciently polished for most purposes without further mechanicaltreatment because its corresponds to the smoothness of the nickel layer3. It may, however, be perfected by the usual polishing or bufling.operations. While various thicknesses may be employed, I have foundthat thicknesses of the order of magnitude of one-half a thousandth ofan inch are generally sufficient. When a chromium layer of thisthickness is obtained, it has a notable hardness and freedom fromdefects. It is white and smooth, and is polished with the minimum ofbufling.

Wheels and belts having my multilayerfacing are highly resistant to theconditions to which the facings are subjected in Patent 1,466,733,Sulzer and Van Derhoef, September 4, 1923, apparatus for making sheetsor film. In other words, they not only resist the shrinking and creepingwear when used as drums for handling paper, but likewise resist thetensified disintegrating forces which arise in the preparation of films,particularly from the dopes mentioned in the above cited patent. Thesedisintegrating forces encountered in the production of film bydeposition of a film-forming solution upon a surface for that purposeare many fold. Not only do cellulose nitrate dopes, and particularlycellulose acetate dopes, normally contain elements which are corrosiveto metallic surfaces, but, I have found, the facility or lack offacility with which a film so formed can be stripped from the filmforming surface is by no means to be predicted from experience withother materials. For

instance, film was first produced by coating a solution thereof uponhighly polished plate glass but many dimculties were encounteredin-stripping the film from the glass, the film sticking quitetenaciously to the glass until thoroughly freed of solvents and eventhen being difficult of removal except under proper humidity conditions.Although previous experience, therefore, with a highly polished quitehard surface, such as glass, indicated that it would be unsuitable forfilm coating purposes I discovered that a very smooth chromium surface(which is, of course, quite hard) is very suitable for the production offilms by deposition of a dope thereon containing the cellulosederivative, such as cellulose n1- trate, acetate or ether.

With such a chromium surface I found that the film need not becompletely freed of solvents before remova1'(as in thecase of a hardsmooth glass surface) but that the film could be stripped from thechromium surface while the film was quite green, i. e. while the filmstill contained a good portion of its solvents although havingsufficient body to be handled. This also was not to be predictedby pastexperience with nickel or silver surfaces as such metals are quite softwhen compared with chromium or glass.

While I refer hereinbefore to a multilayer facing of which chromium isthe outer facing or surface it will be obvious that I may employ thechromium over any suitable supporting metal. As stated above, the nickelmay be imposed'directly upon the iron or steel support and the chromiumupon the nickel, or the chromium may be imposed directly upon the ironor steel or other metallic support it being necessary only that thesupport have a polished surface, to

,which the chromium will pr'operly adhere, in

duce only smaller sizes or areas of film. It will further be obviousthat my invention may be utilized in the production of any other elementwhere wear-resistance, and even ornamentation is desired, my multilayercoating giving increased wear resistance to almost any article uponwhich it -may be employed, such as hardware, jewel y, 7e-

fiectors, automobile parts, implements and the like.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A cylindrical element for use in the manu-' facture of films fromdopes containing cellulosic derivatives and having a hard smoothperipheral.

surface 'upon which film-forming dopes may be deposited and from whichthe films may be readily stripped, said surface comprising a supportingmetallic backing, a polished nickel surface integrally united to asupporting backing and an outer layer of chromium, and said chromiumlayer being adherent to said polished nickel surface and possessing acorresponding polish which it imparts to a film formed thereon.

2. An element havinga smooth hard surface upon which film-forming dopescontaining cellulosic derivatives may be deposited and from which thefilm so formed may be readily stripped, said surface comprising a smoothhard facing of substantially pure chromium metal.

3. A film-forming element having a smooth hard surf aceupon whichfilm-forming. dopes containing cellulosic derivatives may be depositedand from which the film so formed may be readily stripped, said elementcomprising a supporting metallic backing, a polished nickel surfaceintegrally united to the supportingbacking and an outer facing ofchromium, said chromium facing being adherent to said polished nickelsurface and possessing a corresponding polish which it is capable ofimparting to a film formed there- 4. The method of manufacturingcellulose derivative products and thelike, comprising forming thecellulose-derivative material upon tools or implements having a chromiumsurface.

5. The method of manufacturing cellulose derivative products andthe-like comprising formrous foundation metal. a layer of copperelectroplated thereon, an outer layer of chromium and a layer of nickelinterposed between the layers of copper and chromium. v

8. An article of manufacture comprising a. terrous foundation metal, alayer of copper deposit ed thereon, a layer-o1 nickel deposited upon thecopper layer and a layer of chromium deposited upon thenickel layer.

HENRY E. VAN DERHOEF.

